Competing to make a difference

In a good example of how the youth is becoming more socially aware and proactive, over 35 teams from 57 colleges across the country will present community empowerment projects at the Enactus India National Competition in Mumbai on June 18 and 19.

The contest will bring together students, academics and business leaders.

Participating students will showcase projects on various issues like women empowerment, renewable energy, workforce training, agriculture, education and environmental sustainability, with a focus on applying an entrepreneurial approach to improve the quality of life and living standards of communities.

“We want to make students aware of the economic, environmental and social aspects of business models, which will also help underprivileged people in our country,” said Farhan Pettiwala, president, Enactus India.

A 31-member team from the National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE), Mumbai, will be presenting project Sankalp, a solar powered mobile charger and lamp. “We are targeting people living in areas with long load shedding hours… We currently are implementing project ‘Sankalp’ in a village near Nerul,” said Kaushal Shahau, team representative. “We will also present ‘Prayatna’, which works towards women empowerment and providing them resources and material to make bags out of used clothes,” he added.

Kopal Agarwal and her team of 57 from KJ Somaiya Institute of Management and Research will also be presenting their pet project ‘Mogra’. “We trained farmers from Dahanu village to cultivate mogra flowers. which are in demand in Mumbai. It helped 72 farmers increase their incomes by Rs3,000,” she said.

The competition , which will take place at Hotel Taj Land’s End, Bandra, will be judged by a panel that includes Dr S Parasuraman, director, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and Preet Dhupar, COO, BBC World (India) Pvt. Ltd.

The winner will represent India at the Enactus World Cup at Cancun, Mexico later this year.